Proposals to bring the five Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) in Norfolk and Waveney under one single management team will be approved later this month.

CCGs plan and pay for health care services in the local areas they are responsible for. They replaced primary care trusts (PCT) of which there were two in the region - Norfolk PCT and Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT.

The proposal will see one chief officer, a team of executive directors and one team of staff run the CCGs in Norwich, South, North and West Norfolk, and Great Yarmouth and Waveney.

A Norwich CCG spokesman said the move was not a merger and the CCGs will remain serving their localities, but that they will be managed by a single team in a bid to make it more consistent and efficient.

He said there has been no indication so far of how much money will be saved under the new structure.

The proposals will be formally approved by the CCG’s governing bodies when they meet in public in the week beginning Monday, November 26.

The clinical chairs of the five CCGs said: “We believe having one single management team, with one chief officer, one team of executive directors and one team of staff all working together will lead to greater coherence and consistency and a commissioning system acting as one when required, but acting with a local focus where more appropriate.

“This, of course, is already successfully in place in North and South Norfolk, where there is one management and staff team, and two governing bodies.”

A Norwich CCG spokesman said there were currently around 473 people employed across all five CCGs but it is not known how many people will be working under the new structure.

The chief officer and chief finance officer will be appointed in early 2019, with executive directors to be appointed shortly thereafter.

“Once that is in place the directorate and chief officer will sit down and plan the staff structure,” the spokesman added.

“The CCGs are committed to putting in place a fair and transparent HR process for everyone involved although there are no further details of the future staffing structure or roles at this stage.”